poetries &

From Gyroscopes

 ~Western Italy
The Shroud of Turin
Has been digitally
Enhanced and cleaned
Up from the fire
Repair done by Nuns
In the 13th century.
Of course none of the
Stains have been touched
The Vatican official
Statement is that its
Authenticity should be taken
With a pillar of salt
Correction a grain of salt
In a related story
salt is good
For removing blood stains
And thrown over the shoulder
It can also blind someone who
Might be sneaking up on you
Convening
~ North of Moscow
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
scientists collided
Isotopes 20,97
Calcium and berkelium
For sub chamber
Supernova
In milliseconds
scrambled more
void time
Than big bang
betting odds
against infinite
But longer in
Dormant time
Fortunately the
Fire sat in what
Looked like
A realm of
Cobalt
onyx dream
But for the moment
It is called
Un0un septium by
International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry
Placing it on the periodic
Table as no. 117.
No one could leave the chamber
~  In Southern Africa
The skeletons of humanoids
A couple of million years
Older than Lucy (found
On the West Coast of Africa
And everybody’s grandmother
The mother and teen were
Taller than Lucy and
More evolved physically
Between simian ancestors
And Neanderthals
This opens up new
Evolutionary avenues
kind of blows Noah
Out of the water
But he would want
The text amended
Without pause                   ~Later that night West Village

a Refraction that
told of the
tip of a
Millionth
heaven
quarter
Moon
that
appeared on the
ping of that
frequency
reported
only on early
radio news
there was the
Freedom
Through
Europe
that took
over the rest of
the day
by that night
an
Eacart
Silver
moon
Erased
memory
floated in
and Universal
Studios had sent
over coal clouds
to shadow
in shadow
to shroud
radiance
meanwhile you spin the dances of Isadora
& I drink mercury

Classical Philly

Juilliard String Quartet
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Perelman Theater, Philadelphia
Jan. 25

For their second appearance at The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society this month, The Juilliard String Quartet was scheduled to perform with premier pianist Leon Fleisher playing Brahms’ Piano Quintet. Unfortunately Mr. Fleisher had to bow out due to illness. JSQ substituted the Brahms with a handy string quartet. Violinists Ronald Copes and Joseph Lin, violist Roger Tapping violist and Joel Krosnick performed one of their regular season programs an altogether sterling concert of Haydn, Beethoven and contemporary composer Shulamit Ran.

Music scholar Paul Schiavo points out in excellent program notes that Haydn was the first to develop mature string quartets. It is evident in his String Quartet in G Major, op. 33, it states, defines and even anticipates so much in this form. The witty and vibrant baroque-ness leads to intense, and adventurous string dialogues with the intricate baroque-classical mixes, sounding to an extent free form. Scherzo brightness gives way to somber clusters. Joseph Lin’s passionate and precision playing can’t help but take the spotlight early on, but the ensemble synergy is as resplendent as the composer’s timeless musicality.

Connected in form, but at the other end of the musical spectrum in effect is Shulamit Ran’s String Quartet, op. 2, Vistas composed in 1988-89, was occasioned by a musical cultural exchange with Russia. Shulamit is the second women to win a Pulitzer Prize for composition and her voice in this piece also displays her compelling voice and the drama she brings to this form.

Ran An overt and virtuosic challenge of form under subheads- Concentric, Stasis, Flashes, Vista- is musical architecture in constant structural and dazzling motion, like a chaotic, but fully formed sonic world with muscled, sometimes hostile phrases, razor sharp string interlocks , note bends, roving contrapuntal language and subtle, lyrical echoes of Hassidic music. Each musician has challenging solo lines, with the two final movements cued by Krosnick with a somber dissonant line that pushes, almost furiously, in different directions. This piece and JQ’s playing grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.

Beethoven’s String Quartet op. 26 doesn’t sound like Ludwig’s epic symphonic work, cathartic solo pieces or even his violin concertos, but almost a liberated form, even with Beethoven’s defining technical prowess, this admirably, is without any signatures. Beethoven showing that the viola is not second string to the violin and Tapping making the most of those movement lead-ins. This string quartet has an almost self-mocking edge in moments, one of the composer’s rare instances of musical levity.

Without pause, Juilliard String Quartet’s trademark full sound and technique is always in the musical moment with the audience.